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Provincial: New recipe for success needed
Commentary by Jeff Burgar
for South Peace News
If there’s one thing you can take to the bank, it’s a fact that 99 times out of 100, people in charge are not prepared for disaster.
If asked, local officials can point proudly to the big binder that holds each of their emergency plans.
The binder has responses for flood, power outages, epidemics, ice storms, forest fires and just about anything bad that can happen.
Want to know how to fill a sandbag? It’s in there. Want to know who to call if you need a helicopter? It’s in there.
That’s the good news. The bad news is, knowing how to fill a sandbag isn’t much help if you don’t have any bags. The phone numbers and contact persons get more out of date with each passing month.
All in all, the big binders have lots of information. Maybe the school or hospital plans are reviewed every six months or so. Town and M.D plans are lucky to get a looksee every three or four years, if that. Then it’s back on the shelf.
Other governments? Your guess is as good as any.
This is understandable. Staff and elected officials everywhere have much on their minds. Potholes. Paydays. Superhighways. Media spins. Oil royalties. Wars. Sewage systems. Water treatment. Recycling programs. The list is endless. Peeking inside the big binders is thankless with usually no discernible results. And who has time to read a binder when there’s a propane leak or a flu outbreak?
There’s a disaster happening, dammit. We got things to do!
That Alberta isn’t even able to manage vaccination lineups and now, a shortage of vaccine, is a demonstration of the usual thinking surrounding emergencies.
Most top managers, in this case our MLA’s and cabinet ministers, just don’t see any reason for planning, think tanks about possible disasters, or training exercises. If one disaster might be an meteor falling on the capital, well, what are the chances, right? And so it goes.
The whole list of disasters, from floods to train wrecks to bus crashes happen so rarely it’s easy to see why they make the front page of the newspaper.
The switching of flu shots to just those at risk is also rare enough to be big news.
That said, our H1N1 is one of those non-disasters (perhaps) that so far is decent enough to unfold in slow motion.
The big disaster binders may or may not be getting the attention they deserve. The simple fact we are handling something seemingly as simple as mass vaccinations so badly tells us something is very wrong with emergency planning.
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